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When you define your core values, you discover what’s truly important to you.

A fun and effective way to identify your values is to look back on your life and write down the significant moments, choices and turning points you’ve experienced. You know it was a significant moment if it can be clearly remembered.

Your list of moments may include:

Big decisions you had to make.

Traumatic experiences in your life and your response to them.

Any time when you had to make a choice that really mattered.

Times when you felt really confident that you were making good choices.

Moments in your life where you felt happiest – euphoric.

Don’t worry too much about the details of each moment; just write down a sentence or two about each. When finished, look through the list and think about why each of these moments mattered so much.

What were you doing?

Were you with other people? Who?

What other factors contributed to this moment?

Were you proud in the moment?

Did other people share your pride? Who?

What other factors contributed to your feelings of pride?

What need or desire did the moment fulfill?

How and why did the moment give your life meaning?

What other factors contributed to your feelings of fulfillment?

What internal situation were you trying to handle?

What were you trying to avoid?

What were you trying to accomplish?

What made you make this choice and not another?

What was the emotional payoff surrounding the choice you made?

Next, determine the values at play with each important moment you listed. Use the following list of values with which to tag each memorable moment.

List of Values

Accountability

Accuracy

Achievement

Adventurousness

Altruism

Ambition

Assertiveness

Balance

Being the best

Belonging

Boldness

Calmness

Carefulness

Challenge

Cheerfulness

Clear-mindedness

Commitment

Community

Compassion

Competitiveness

Consistency

Contentment

Continuous Improvement

Contribution

Control

Cooperation

Correctness

Courtesy

Creativity

Curiosity

Decisiveness

Democracy

Dependability

Determination

Devoutness

Diligence

Discipline

Discretion

Diversity

Dynamism

Economy

Efficiency

Elegance

Empathy

Effectiveness

Enjoyment

Enthusiasm

Equality

Excellence

Excitement

Expertise

Exploration

Expressiveness

Fairness

Faith

Family

Fidelity

Fitness

Fluency

Focus

Freedom

Fun

Generosity

Goodness

Grace

Growth

Happiness

Hard Work

Health

Helping Society

Holiness

Honesty

Honor

Humility

Independence

Ingenuity

Inner Harmony

Inquisitiveness

Insightfulness

Intelligence

Intellectual Status

Intuition

Joy

Justice

Leadership

Legacy

Love

Loyalty

Making a difference

Mastery

Merit

Obedience

Openness

Order

Originality

Patriotism

Perfection

Piety

Positivity

Practicality

Preparedness

Quality-orientation

Reliability

Resourcefulness

Restraint

Results-oriented

Rigor

Professionalism

Prudence

Security

Self-actualization

Self-control

Selflessness

Self-reliance

Sensitivity

Serenity

Service

Shrewdness

Simplicity

Soundness

Speed

Spontaneity

Stability

Strategic

Strength

Structure

Success

Support

Teamwork

Temperance

Thankfulness

Thoroughness

Thoughtfulness

Timeliness

Tolerance

Traditionalism

Trustworthiness

Understanding

Uniqueness

Unity

Usefulness

Vision

Vitality

Based on the significant moments experienced in my life, some of my values may be:

I am so much like the GPS commercial when the GPS says “turn right” and I drive into a building. But, you know, it isn’t just in seeking a specific physical location that we can get lost or “drive into” something that stops us cold. In the course of life, have you ever felt that you were “off course” not sure which direction to go? Or, has something happened, beyond your control, that sets your head spinning so you don’t know the right direction?

After my frustrating experience with the GPS, I thought, how could I have avoided that frustration? Where did I go wrong? I followed all the directions , but I arrived at the wrong place!

Do you look around you and see that you thought you were following directions, but somehow ended up in the wrong place? A place of loneliness, emptiness or just feeling that you are not accomplishing what you thought you would in life?

I remember, after many years in sales, working for a huge pharmaceutical company, looking up one day from the constant stress and the tunnel vision jobs can put us in and thinking, “ I want to do something bigger than this, I want to reach beyond this tunnel vision and see the world, the people around me and their needs. Do you ever feel like you are in a tunnel and you are being swept along with the details of jobs and family and other influences?

For me the wake up call came when I began to listen to myself and look inside instead of out at the tasks I needed to complete. I heard a message about creating our legacy and what others will remember about us when we are gone. This started me thinking about my life and how I was spending my time and what I would be remembered for. Sales, hard work, travel- surely, this couldn’t be all there was to me? I started praying that I would be used for something bigger than myself, to find my purpose in this life beyond the day-to-day requirements.

At this point, I was defined by my job, by what I did to earn a living. Then, in August 2010, I lost my job. This was a real turning point in my life. All of a sudden, I looked in the mirror and asked,” who is this person?” What do I do now?” I didn’t know who I was outside of what I did. I lost my mom that same year and all of these events forced me to look at who I really am. I began to search for, what I call, My sacred path, the path that is unique to me and what purpose was I created to fill.

We all have a “Sacred Path”, a unique purpose that only we can fulfill. I can tell you that when you are on your path, you will feel complete, content and you will know in your heart of hearts that you are doing what you are meat to do. This doesn’t always mean just what you do to make a living, but it is about that place in your life that is uniquely you – where you find joy and peace. You can have that place outside of your job and it will make you a happier and more productive employee because you know who you are and what your purpose is.

Stay tuned for Part 3

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